This evening I booked tickets for this weekend to go to Villefranche-de-Rouergue to see Karen!
It will be just like this picture! Minus the UVA-setting, the fraternity, and that dude in the background. Also, I'll probably have on a scarf.
And we'll be here.
I'm excited. Mostly because I'll be happy to see Karen but also to go and see a new place (plus we might take a day trip or two) and to get out of Perigueux again.
Big things are happening in Perigueux, though. Christmas lights are all set, Christmas trees are going up, the Christmas market is being constructed...too bad that the big unveiling (which I'm guessing is going to be Saturday, December 1) is going to take place while I'm out of town. But there's going to be some kind of Christmas festival in Villefranche this weekend, so I'll still get my full French Christmas dosage for the weekend.
It's funny that the French go all-out for Christmas yet are much less religious than the Americans. Not that we don't go all-out for Christmas...but there sure are a lot of lights here. (This has probably been the 15th blog post I've mentioned the unlit Christmas lights in. I'm also going to stop saying the word "Christmas" because when I look at the last two paragraphs, it's the only word I see.)
Anyway, I also bought tickets this evening to go to Lyon with Marina next weekend. We're going for the massive "Fete des Lumieres," a huge tourist attraction that takes place every December 8 in Lyon to celebrate some holiday about the Virgin Mary. When I was in Lyon in 2011 in the middle of July they were talking about the Fete des Lumieres (which, by the way, means "Festival of Lights" for those of you who don't speak French). It's a huge deal and the whole city gets flooded with hundreds of thousands of tourists. We'll be staying on a mattress on the floor of Marina's friend's room in Lyon - which is great! (There are no hotels available in Lyon. Or outside of Lyon. Until you get about 30km away.) The videos and pictures of this festival are amazing (plus I'm excited to go back to Lyon and show Marina the city), so I think it will be a really amazing experience.
This is the only picture I'm uploading because if I put up the Google images or a YouTube video, the pictures I take next week will probably pale in comparison. So you'll just have to stay tuned for those. (Lyon filles, I'm super bummed you can't be there with me!)
I started looking into tickets to go to London and Oxford in March (during the winter/spring vacation we have then) to see my friend, Michelle, who attends Oxford. I can find cheap plane tickets directly from Bordeaux to London - and her break overlaps with mine...and I can be there for her birthday as well. So many small victories! I'm in the process of figuring out those details, but that is exciting, too.
And (cause I really was on a travel planning binge) I reserved some of the tickets/hotels for the trip I'll take with Mark after my family leaves. After I travel with my family (around France and a little bit of northern Spain - I'll explain in detail when we're actually traveling...in three weeks!!) Mark and I will travel as well, mostly using Toulouse as a home-base to do some day trips. But, again, more on that later when it's more pertinent.
I also occasionally teach while I'm here...someday I'll write a post about that. That will be my goal this weekend while I'm taking the train to and from Villefranche: prove that I also have a job here.
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